mcgurk@yorku.ca 348 Stong Fridays 3-4 and by appt.

1. mcgurk@yorku.ca348 StongFridays 3-4 and by appt.

2. Causal Argumentsshow how one event brings about another • Explaining causality involves creating a plausible chain of events linking a cause to its effects • Arguments may explicitly state a cause and then examine its effects: • Obesity causes a public health care epidemic, weakens the effectiveness of social services and taxes the economy.

3. Arguments may instead highlight an effect and then develop an argument by tracing the effect back to its causes. • The Hollywood productions released in the past year with plots about with war in Iraq failed at the box office. • Audiences are fatigued by talk of the war, popular war films have traditionally been made after the conflict ends, there hasn’t been a superior film made about the war yet.

4. Fitting Causal Arguments to Toulmin’s Model • You can present causal arguments in the “because clauses” by isolating key elements in the causal chain. • Violent video games may be a contributing cause in school shootings because playing these games can make random, sociopathic violence seem pleasurable and many of the games resemble simulation exercises used by the military.

5. Causal arguments occur in other types of arguments such as proposals and evaluations and often involve precise definitions. • Causal arguments are complex and require careful analysis of data. Correlation does not imply causation. (HRT and CHD example). • Causal arguments arrive at probable conclusions rather than absolute. • Formulate a claim by asking questions.

6. Claim: Violent video games may be a contributing factor in school shootings. • Stated reasons: because the games encourage players to take pleasure in harming others and are similar to the technology the military uses to train soldiers to become effective killers • Grounds: evidence that the school shooters played the games; evidence that the games are violent; evidence that the games are popular with students. • Warrant: when violence is consumed for entertainment there is a danger it will transfer into real life.

7. Backing: testimony from psychiatrists; studies showing that frequent exposure to violence desensitizes people to violence; evidence showing that the distinction between fantasy and reality comes only with cognitive development. • Conditions of rebuttal: perhaps the shooter didn’t play such games; perhaps the games are no more violent than average games such as cops and robbers; perhaps kids can distinguish between reality and make believe

8. 3 kinds of Inductive reasoning: informal, scientific experiment, correlation • When we can’t explain a causal link directly, we can use the reasoning strategy induction to gain probable truths. • Informal induction looks for a common element which can explain a repeated circumstance. For ex., psychologists found that anorexics are high achieving girls from the middle and upper classes.

9. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc (called faulty causality) occurs when one assumes that because one event follows another, the first event causes the second.

10. Scientific experiments carefully examine and test our causal hypotheses. • Correlation expresses a statistical relationship in order to establish a possibility that an observed link is causal rather than coincidence.

11. Establishing plausible causal chains: A person who registers a low stress level AND Someone who does daily mediations A person who regularly consumes frozen dinners AND someone who is likely to vote for additional transit funding (hmm sounds familiar) A person who regularly consumes chocolate AND someone who suffers debilitating migraines

12. Causal arguments by analogy or precedent • Attempts to present grounds (evidence) through resemblance with another case which is similar but well known and less controversial to the audience. • Draw an analogy between biological vulnerability for some children to develop asthma to a neurological vulnerability to develop violent behaviour.

13. Warnings • Fallacy of Oversimplified Causes (looking for THE cause) • Confusing Universal and Existential Quantifiers (some vs. All) • Immediate vs. Remote Causes (temporal timeline) • Precipitating vs. Contributing Causes (the latter give rise to the former) • Necessary vs. Sufficient Causes (has to be present/always induces effect)

14. Constraints refer to effects that occurred not because X happened but because another factor was removed. • What kind of causes and constraints could we identify to explain: Why are women’s fashion magazines the most frequently purchased periodicals in campus bookstores?

15. Argument and Pornography • Feminists argue that pornography causes violence against women. • Women Against Pornography (WAP) NYC 1976 lobbyist group to promote anti-porn legislation • Publication of Linda BoremanOrdeal in 1980 • Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance passed in Minneapolis 1983, Indianapolis 1984, Bellingham, Washington 1988

16. Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon were leading figures in the legislative battle while feminists such as Susan Brownmiller and Wendy Kaminer opposed efforts at legal censorship. • Dworkin’sPornography: Men Possessing Women (1979), MacKinnon’s “Pornography, Civil Rights and Speech” (1985), Brownmiller’sIn Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (1999)

17. Canada’s Supreme Court ruled in 1992 R. V. Butler tried to balance freedom of expression with women’s rights. In Butler the Court held that porn which degraded women was similar to hate speech. The Court's decision cited extensively from briefs prepared by the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), with MacKinnon's support and participation.

18. Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity by Robert Jensen • Feminist anti-porn activist since the early 80s • His mentor Jim cautioned him not to join to save women but rather to save his own life. • “Pornography is a mirror.” • Porn mirrors the mainstream values of domination and subordination, white supremacy and predatory corporate capitalism.

19. Feminism taught Jensen: • He uses the children’s King of the Hill game to describe masculinity. • “The systems and structures in which we live are hierarchical.” • “Hierarchical systems and structures deliver to those in the dominant class certain privileges, pleasures and benefits.” • Those benefits are at the expense of the subordinate • In context with common values placed on equality and justice, hierarchies have to be justified by more than self-interest • Persuasive arguments hold that domination & subordination is “natural.”

20. Rape culture Only 27% of women who fit legal definition of rape identified as such 88% of men who had committed an assault legally defined as rape were adamant that they had not committed rape In 1995, Toronto researchers Melanie Randall and Lori Haskell found that of the 420 women they interviewed, 54% had been sexually abused before age 16.

21. He uses Dworkin’s definitions which argue that inequality is essential for sexual pleasure in porn • Objectification, Hierarchy, submission, violence • Nearly 14,000 porn releases last year; he screened 50 of the best sellers. The international market revenues est. 57 billion. • Fundamental dynamics: all women want sex all the time from all men, the sexual acts they want are the ones that men demand, any woman who doesn’t submit will do so by force.

22. Why do so many pornographic films feature women who appear in pain and distress? • Why do men either not mind women’s suffering or else derive sexual gratification from women’s pain? • Why is pornography so cruel? • Is pornography ever a factor contributing to rape?

23. Direct causal links between rape and pornography is impossible because porn is just one element among many in a misogynist culture. • Pornography doesn’t directly cause rape but it contributes by making rape inviting • Women have no real control or consent onscreen which leads to men blurring the line of what constitutes rape.

24. Enthymeme: Porn causes violence against women because it mirrors predatory masculinity and dehumanizes women. • Warrant (audience’s values, beliefs) men are ethical and honourable; women are full human beings who deserve social equality. • Grounds: evidence showing how porn is mainstream but also that mainstream porn rests on cruelty to women. Men are invited to take pleasure in women’s pain. Includes research, testimonials from men and women.

25. Backing: arguments to support the warrant show that boys are raised to think that masculinity is defined by aggression, domination, competition and insensitivity • Conditions of rebuttal: Jensen anticipates the primary objection would be that the women in porn “choose” to enter the industry freely • Qualifier: Jensen does not suggest all men are guilty, just that porn sets a precedent for normalizing women’s objectification in context with men’s pleasure. He also doesn’t ask for censorship, only men’s reflection on the implications of taking gratification in women’s pain

26. “Rat Trap: Why Canada’s Drug Policy Won’t Check Addiction” by Robert Hercz • Enthymeme: Drugs do not cause addiction because addiction stems from the user’s environment. • Warrant: drug addiction is a social epidemic we must end • Grounds: The war on drugs has been expensive and unsuccessful; Bruce Alexander’s “Rat Park” experiment and data taken from Vietnam vets serve as evidence that addiction is a method to cope with unsavory/unpleasant/dangerous scenarios.

27. Backing: society should remove the pressures (poverty, violence, unemployment, injustice) which foster hostile environments and the need for an escape into drugs. • Conditions of rebuttal: include the evidence of how much money and resources have been wasted on Canada’s current ineffective policy. • Qualifier: notes that more research on human addiction is necessary outside of the biological approach